I have had a month or two of blissful non-connectivity owing to breaking my ‘mobile’ telephone. As of 12 September 2011 I once again have a telephone I can use to browse online things whilst out and about. Is this a good thing? Probably not.

I wouldn’t be able to do what I do were it not for the internet, and for this I am extremely grateful. Yet on a daily basis the internet is my worst enemy: I allow it to distract, to take away creative and looking-out-of-the-window-at-things time, and to stop me interacting with those around me. Generally (and there are of course exceptions) the less time I spend online the happier I am.

This marks me out as an idiot. Remind me when I next break my mobile telephone not to buy another one.

I’ll moderate any comments when I’m on the train.

Posted by Dave at 5:49 pm on September 13, 2011 and filed under Cartoons, Technical.

9 Comments

See the larger version of this cartoon here: Differing heights.

I, being towards the taller end of thingst, often feel awkward when I find myself in a central seat near the front in church (well, in truth I often feel awkward in any seat, but that is another story). This is because I’m certain I’m blocking those behind me from seeing the clip art on the overhead powerpoint. This cartoon is my attempt to provide solutions to this problem.

How about you? Are you among the blockers or the blocked? What solutions do you have to the problem? Please feel free to make any comments on this issue, one of the most pressing for today’s church. In preparation for the debate I have categorised this post under ‘in-depth analysis’.

I should mention that this, along with the other cartoons I’ve posted this week, is taken from the Canterbury Press book ‘The exciting world of churchgoing‘, now available with 10 (ten) % (percent) off.

Posted by Dave at 7:30 pm on September 8, 2011 and filed under Cartoons, Church, In-depth analysis.

15 Comments

See the larger readable version of this cartoon here: Sermon illustrations – ideas for some good ones.

Information about using this cartoon elsewhere is on this page as per usual. The only problem with putting this cartoon in your church magazine is that your parishioners will have seen all of your best material. My advice would be to leave it nine weeks or so until you’ve had a chance to use all of the ideas. Those of you who use a lectionary will no doubt raise one or more eyebrows at the suggestion that the sermon illustrations can be used in the next nine weeks, but I’m sure that the determined will find a way.

Another cartoon tomorrow. Who knows, there might even be some new material at some point.

Posted by Dave at 12:57 pm on September 7, 2011 and filed under Cartoons, New CartoonChurch cartoons.

5 Comments

A new cartoon has been posted on the main CartoonChurch site – click this link for the larger version: In the vestry. Information on republishing can also be found via that page.

The cartoon is all to do with the things that happen in vestries before the service starts. I have not been allowed in a vestry before a service starts for years, so I really have very little idea what goes on. I have heard rumours that some churches even employ heavily disguised security staff specifically to keep me out. This diagram is therefore based entirely on second hand information and heresy hearsay. If anyone can enlighten me, about this, or indeed about anything, then please feel free to do so.

Some more cartoons will be posted in the next few days as it has been a while. I am also determined to turn over a bit of a blogging leaf from this point onwards. More about that another time.

Posted by Dave at 6:22 pm on September 6, 2011 and filed under Cartoons, Church, New CartoonChurch cartoons.

7 Comments

Just a quick Monday morning cartoon from the notebook. If no-one has ever used this joke before I will be amazed.

Cartooning update: July is always a busy time of year as I am trying to get ahead of myself before taking a slight break, and some publications understandably need to bring deadlines forward for similar reasons. Also there are one or two Greenbelt Festival-related projects to be completed.

The move from CartoonChurch HQ is probably 12% completed, which is quite good progress all things considered. Part of the task is to make room in our house for all of my cartooning paraphernalia, and I have completed at least 16% of this task. I still have some office furniture and nick-nacks to get rid of (only got rid of 18% so far), and will, at some point, post some photographs here.

As always any cartoon subject requests will be considered very gladly should any be posted here or sent to me.

Posted by Dave at 11:04 am on July 18, 2011 and filed under Cartooning, Cartoons.

11 Comments

Today’s question (thanks to Stephen Heard):

Your cartoons, while astute and thought-provoking, are always gentle on us (the Church). Are you ever tempted to be more acerbic or satirical?

It is kind of you to say that my cartoons are thought-provoking. Sometimes they are, I suppose. But a lot of the time I am simply larking around, expressing a humorous idea with the aim of making people smile when they open the newspaper, which to me is a worthwhile aim in its own right.

My style isn’t particularly satirical. There is, of course, an important place for satirical cartooning, but it isn’t generally something I have chosen to do.

I do draw angrier cartoons, but you don’t generally see them – or if you do I have toned them down to become more palatable. They are just put away in folders along with ones that aren’t that good or ideas that never quite made it. There are large and extensive folders for such things. The anger in these drawings is directed against myself as often as anyone else.

One of the difficulties with drawing cartoons about everyday church goings-on is that every situation is different, and so an acerbic cartoon which might hit the mark in one church might wildly miss it in another.

Take example one of the cartoons that, for one reason or another, I remain quite pleased with, after service coffee.

This cartoon was inspired directly by years of standing on my own after church services while other people talked to each other. It perfectly fits the after-church mingling experience in many churches, but in a place where people are making an effort to talk to everyone it would be less applicable, and a more satirical version unhelpful.

Example two, a more recent cartoon entitled untapped talent (original – subscriber-only link).

This is towards the hard-hitting end of the really rather mild DW scale. I drew it having talked to friends who had had the experience of having a lot to offer a church, but had never been asked to do anything that would make the slightest use of their talents. I was surprised that this cartoon didn’t really provoke a reaction. I was glad I drew it, but aware that in many places the opposite is true – newcomers are immediately pounced upon as potential material for any number of church vacancies.

This is the reason I tend not to do many cartoons pointing out how incredibly dull many church events are. I imagine the priest / minister who has worked incredibly hard to make things interesting reading it and their morale being sapped. That isn’t what I want to do at all.

Posted by Dave at 12:40 pm on July 4, 2011 and filed under Cartoons.

21 Comments

See full version here

Today’s cartoon on the main site: Hymn books v data projectors. Another one from The Exciting World of Churchgoing, available from all good church bookstalls.

This cartoon almost begins to suggest I am a traditionalist. I have always refused to go on the rota for the church data projector as I have the attention span of a gnat who is not really concentrating on whatever it is that gnats are supposed to be concentrating on.

Posted by Dave at 9:27 am on May 11, 2011 and filed under Cartoons.

8 Comments

View full-sized version here

This cartoon is now available on CartoonChurch.com for looking at and perhaps republishing – info here. PCC stands for ‘Parochial Church Council’, just in case they don’t have them where you are. You can put in dots and write ‘P.C.C.’ if you like.

This one is for everyone I know who is part of a PCC. If you’re a member of a PCC who has just surfed in accidentally whilst scouring the internet for PCC news then hello, welcome, well done, etc.

Posted by Dave at 7:31 am on May 10, 2011 and filed under Cartoons, New CartoonChurch cartoons.

3 Comments

Today’s diagram is entitled ‘committee meetings’. The lines of text above are but mere lines of text – the full version of the cartoon can be seen on the main CartoonChurch.com site.

I’d say more, but 5-6pm is down in the schedule as ‘toil’.

Posted by Dave at 4:59 pm on May 8, 2011 and filed under Cartoons, New CartoonChurch cartoons.

3 Comments

View full sized version here

Today’s cartoon is lead thieves. That page has all of the information about republishing and suchlike.

Please submit all complaints about trivialising an important issue via the usual channels.

Posted by Dave at 12:54 pm on May 7, 2011 and filed under Cartoons, New CartoonChurch cartoons.

6 Comments

See full version here

My cartoon explaining the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC for short) has been posted on the main CartoonChurch.com site. It is another Church Times one from the latest book.

If you’re a member of a Diocesan Advisory Committee who has just surfed in accidentally whilst scouring the internet for Diocesan Advisory Committee news then hello, welcome, well done, etc.

Posted by Dave at 8:17 am on May 6, 2011 and filed under Cartoons, New CartoonChurch cartoons.

4 Comments

Click here for full version.

New on the main CartoonChurch.com site: the full version (this is a mere extract) of ‘the bishop’s chaplain‘, which explains the main duties. This cartoon can be published subject to the usual licence requirements. It originally appeared in the Church Times newspaper and the book ‘The Exciting World of Churchgoing‘.

If you’re a bishop’s chaplain who has just surfed in accidentally whilst scouring the internet for bishop’s chaplain news then hello, welcome, well done, etc.

Posted by Dave at 9:57 pm on May 4, 2011 and filed under Cartoons, Church, New CartoonChurch cartoons.

2 Comments